Shout Sister Shout! is a Joyful, Scintillating, Knock-your-socks-off Musical at Ford’s Theatre

Shout Sister Shout! is a Joyful, Scintillating, Knock-your-socks-off Musical at Ford’s Theatre

Shout Sister Shout!
Ford’s Theatre
Jordan Wright
March 23, 2023
Special to The Zebra

Carrie Compere as Sister Rosetta Tharpe with (background) Jamal Antony Shuriah (Photo/ André Chung)

Torn from the pages of Gayle F. Wald’s book, “Shout, Sister, Shout! The Untold Story of Sister Rosetta Tharpe” comes Cheryl L. West’s red hot musical, by the same name, Shout Sister Shout! Note the slightly different punctuation. It’s a story about the pioneer of rock and roll. Well known to modern day musicians like Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Aretha and The Rolling Stones, Tharpe’s techniques were copied by many musicians, and she could play the piano and shred a guitar with the best of them. Her musical evolution from church-bred, come-to-Jesus gospel to jitterbug and rockabilly, to jazz, flat-out Black gospel and later pure R&B is mind-blowing.

Carrie Compere as Sister Rosetta Tharpe and company (Photo/ André Chung)

When she finally broke free from her mother, Katie Bell (Carol Dennis from Broadway’s The Color Purple), a strict, bible-thumping, Pentecostal preacher, and her abusive husband, Reverend Tharpe (Sinclair Mitchell), she went all the way to the top of the charts playing Carnegie Hall, New York’s Cotton Club with Cab Calloway (Joseph Anthony Byrd), the iconic Apollo Theatre and sold-out concerts all over Europe. Little known fact: She played to a crowd of thousands of fans at DC’s Griffith Stadium.

This is a huge show featuring a large ensemble of dancers and singers showcasing multiple period dance styles, 22 musical numbers ranging four decades and very enthusiastic audience participation. The music encompasses all the aforementioned styles adding back-up trios and harmonizing quartets and tells the story of the duo act she took on the road with her paramour, Marie Knight (Broadway star Felicia Boswell). As popular as she was, she was somehow left out of the pantheon of musical celebrities. Today, Sister Rosetta Tharpe is considered the “Godmother of Rock-and-Roll”.

Carrie Compere as Sister Rosetta Tharpe (Photo/ André Chung)

This is a joyful, scintillating, knock-your-socks-off musical with the added thrill of a crack cast and starring pitch-perfect Carrie Compere (Broadway’s The Color Purple) as Rosetta Tharpe with Joseph Anthony Byrd as Reverend Tharpe; Joe Mallon as Richie/Tiny/Ensemble. Kelli Blackwell has a star turn as Mahalia Jackson, one of Tharpe’s influences. Many in the company played in Grace: The Musical recently at Ford’s Theatre. And you know how much I loved that one!

Highly recommended. Flat out fun!

Carrie Compere as Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Company (Photo/ André Chung)

With Nia Savoy-Dock as Leeannie/Showgirl/Ensemble; David Rowen as Neckbone/Lucky Millinder/Ensemble; Jamal Antony Shuriah as Nicholas Brother/Little Richard/Ensemble; Jaran Muse as Nicholas Brother/Russell Morrison/Ensemble; Raquel Jennings as Showgirl/Usher Nurse/Ensemble; Jalisa Williams as Showgirl/Ensemble; and Keenan McCarter as Dizzy Gillespie/Ensemble.

Directed by Kenneth L. Roberson; Choreographer William Carlos Angulo; Scenic Design by Tim Mackabee; Costume Design by Alejo Vietti; Orchestrator and Arranger Joseph Joubert.

Through May 13th at Ford’s Theatre, 511 10th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004. For tickets and information visit www.Fords.org or call the box office at 202 347-4833.

Robinette Shines in Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful – A Heartwarming Family Drama

Robinette Shines in Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful – A Heartwarming Family Drama

Ford’s Theatre
Jordan Wright
October 3, 2022
Special to The Zebra

(L-R) Nancy Robinette as Mrs. Carrie Watts and Emily Kester as Thelma
(Photo/Scott Suchman)

Set in Houston, Texas in 1953, The Trip to Bountiful is a nostalgic family drama that was made into an award-winning film starring Geraldine Page whose performance garnered her an Oscar for “Best Actress in a Leading Role” and then remade with Cicely Tyson who won the Tony for “Best Actress in a Play”. In Ford’s Theatre’s season opener, Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright Horton Foote couldn’t ask for a better actor to play the part of Mrs. Carrie Watts than Nancy Robinette. As DC theater royalty Robinette has been seen at Ford’s Theatre in Driving Miss Daisy, Carpetbagger’s Children and State of the Union – three plays that draw on her extraordinary ability to morph into a variety of leading roles. She has appeared at all the major theaters both here and around the country and, proof that she is one of the most beloved actors we have, she has received the Helen Hayes Lifetime Achievement Award and is still a force of nature. Going in I knew I would be in for a treat, and the lady didn’t disappoint. Her portrayal of a determined retiree whose only wish is to revisit her childhood home in Bountiful in her dotage, demonstrates her immense talent for inhabiting a character.

(L-R) Kimberly Gilbert as Jessie Mae Watts, Joe Mallon as Ludie Watts and Nancy Robinette as Mrs. Carrie Watts
(Photo/Scott Suchman)

There is some fine casting in this play most especially in scenes with Carrie and Thelma (Emily Kester), a poised young woman Carrie meets at a bus stop after she’s escaped from the clutches of her son Ludie (Joe Mallon) and his abusive, neurotic shrew of a wife Jessie Mae (Kimberly Gilbert) whose single-mindedness of purpose is getting her hands on Carrie’s pension check. The play’s tension comes in the form of Carrie’s desire to find the right time to run away from her oafish son and daughter-in-law without getting caught and dragged back to a life of sameness and city living in a one-bedroom apartment. Her loss of dignity is the driving force of her need to return to a life of open fields, birds on the wing and the Texas coast where she seeks the solace and sense of self that has been denied her. Gilbert and Robinette are a beautifully balanced pair of opposite ages and their conversations at the bus stop are by far the most heartwarming part of the play as Thelma and Carrie comfort each other by swapping tales and singing hymns.

Nancy Robinette as Mrs. Carrie Watts (Photo/Scott Suchman)

Choosing Michael Wilson to direct the production is quite the coup. Wilson directed the premieres of Foote’s The Carpetbaggers Children, The Death of Papa and The Orphans’ Home Cycle for which he won both the Drama Desk Award as well as the Outer Critics Circle Award and he is currently collaborating with Foote’s daughter, Daisy Foote (who was in the audience on opening night), on a new musical based on Foote’s Oscar-winning film, Tender Mercies.  

All this goes to say that the production was at the highest level for fans of Foote’s work, although, if he were still alive, I would urge him to rewrite the ending so that Carrie would find the boyfriend of her youth waiting for her return to Bountiful.

Additional Cast: Marty Lodge as Houston Ticket Agent/Sheriff; Michael Glenn as Second Houston Ticket Agent/Voice; Christopher Bloch as Roy/Voice; with Will Cooke, Nicola Daval, Drake Leach and Mary Myers as Townspeople and Travelers.

Scenic Design by Tim Mackabee; Costume Design by Ivania Stack; Lighting Design by Rui Rita.

Through October 16th at Ford’s Theatre, 511 10th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004. For tickets and information call the box office at 202 347-4833 or visit www.Fords.org.